20th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS

The 20th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, also known as the 20th Estonian SS Volunteer Division, was a division of Waffen-SS conscripts from Estonia formed on 24 January 1944 during World War II. The division was formed when Adolf Hitler ordered the conscription of Estonian males to fight against the Soviet Union in the Baltics, and the division took part in the fighting against the Red Army during its invasion of Estonia in the summer-autumn of 1944. In February 1945, the division consisted of 11,000 Estonian and 2,500 German troops, and the division had to abandon its heavy weapons and equipment while fleeing from the Soviets in Silesia in March 1945. In May 1945, the division suffered heavy losses during the Prague Offensive, and Czechoslovakian resistance fighters murdered 500 Estonian POWs. The last remnants surrendered to the US Army, and many were repatriated to the USSR.